Web Of Lies
by MrFlorenceandTheMachine
Summary: Joss is a lonesome dragon keeper, who has lost his one and only love in life. He has lost all faith in humanity, but when a mysterious murder occurs in a small village. Joss discovers secrets never meant to be discovered, and even his own fate...
1. Prologue

Prologue

Joss screamed in his sleep, awakening himself by sitting upright suddenly in a saturated straw bed because of cold sweats. The nightmares would not stop, every night he would see her. Every night he would hear her. Every night he would touch her, like he did once before. But his imagination always took him to the same dark place, that place he never wanted to be at again. He clambered out of bed and took the bottle of wine from the bedside table. Without a glass he knocked back at least two glasses of the wine, it was like sour milk and made him gag. But his mental pain needed to be drained, strong alcohol was his only salvation. Joss was a dragon-keeper. Dragons were not at all what they seem in fairy tales and books. They were not vicious, fire-breathing monsters that needed to be slaughtered. Instead they were like a common honey bee, minding their own business and doing what it needs to do to survive. I am not saying that they are not powerful though, as they could rip a man from limb to limb in a matter of seconds, but only if aggravated. Joss' dragon was named 'Whipper'. The name came from the dragon's enormous tail once, when joss was about to get into a fight, the dragon (only a child) swung its flailing black tail against the man. He was flung into the wall of the pub they were outside of. Out of a joke the name 'Whipper' was born. A dragon-keepers job was to protect the world from the demons that lurked in the rotting outlands, and the ghosts that walked the streets of Odyssia. A peace-keeper was Joss.

Joss opened the door of his room, and he saw a young woman with ratty blonde hair stood outside. Joss pulled a face of shock, and the woman stood upright embarrassed that she had been caught.

'Were you eavesdropping?' he said in a quiet and calm tone. She looked at him with beady blue eyes.

'Its true, what they say.' Joss was confused at this comment.

'Excuse me'

'The woman's name you scream out in your sleep. Who is she, a friend, a sibling, _a lover?_'. A lump formed itself in Joss' throat, and tears filled his eyes. His one and only love, ripped from his life four years ago. Trying to ignore the girls words he replied.

'What do you want?'.

'There is a man in the fields severely wounded.

'I'm sorry, I keep the peace. I am not a medic.' Joss began to close the wooden door, but the woman put her foot in the gap before he could close it.

'Wait. He isn't just injured. He has been hit with an arrow. He's dead, he has been murdered...'. Joss' eyes widened. This was perfect to take away the pain he was facing.

'Let me gather my things, and I will be with you soon.' She nodded desperately and glanced at the half full bottle of wine.

'Have you been drinking?' she asked. Joss slammed the door shut. A dragon keeper was meant to be free of alcohol, and of anything else that could cloud his mind. They were supposed to be people of purity. Not just anyone could become a dragon-keeper. The dragons live in a specific county. Warriors, soldiers, vicars, doctors anyone who was a high amount of respect in their town could go to the county of Dragons Keep. But many would come back empty handed. You could not simply choose a dragon, but the dragon chooses you. I was a powerful man in the Elders. The Elders were an important group of people that controlled Odyssia. They were the government, at the time I thought it would be a great thing to go and see the island. I didn't expect for a dragon to pick me. And as if that was'nt shocking enough, the dragon that picked me was of the rarest breed known to mankind, the shadow bringers. Despite the daunting name, that specific dragon was loyal and kind hearted. As well as being dreadfully powerful and huge, the name was given to the dragon because of its colour. It was entirely black, but with shimmering scales, a silver tint could be seen in the moonlight.

Joss gathered his Dragon-keeper cloak of a dark crimson colour, took his staff and filled a silver hip flask up with wine and hid it under his cloak. As he walked out the door of his room, he took the dagger his father had given him as a teenager as a keepsake and walked down the stairs. I looked at the bar to my right and saw two men sleeping at the bar with a whiskey shot still grasped in their hands. I strolled outside of the 'Black Horse' inn, and smelled the fresh air smelling of pines and a faint smell of roasting meat caught my attention. The night was pitch black, and not even the moon was visible as it was hiding behind a huge black cloud. A faint drizzle of rain cooled my skin, and as I looked forward the woman with blonde ratty hair and blonde eyes was waiting for me. She took me to a field where poppies grew. As she gingerly stepped into a patch of grass which looked like something had flattened she gasped.

'Whats wrong?' Joss said.

' The body. Its gone!'...


	2. Chapter 2 Death Of A Friend

The woman began to look around her surroundings, and Joss did the same.

'Are you sure he was here?' Joss asked.

'YES! I don't understand where he could of...' she stopped suddenly and looked to the right where a huge oak tree stood. Her face was a mix of pure terror and shock. Joss peered over to the oak tree cautiously. He took the oil-lantern that the woman was holding, and trudged over to the tree to inspect. And there, tied to a tree branch and hanging down, was the mans corpse. With a wooden arrow with an iron head drove straight through the temple of his head. A stream of blood ran down his face and the rest of his body. But on his neck, there was a whistle. A dragon-keeper's whistle. Almost the same as Joss' that he kept around his neck. A dragon whistle was an instrument that only the dragon-keeper's dragon could hear, so each whistle was made differently and was unique. This man was a dragon keeper, but if this man was a dragon keeper and he was faced with his fate, why did he not call for help from his dragon? Joss took the knife and cut the whistle-necklace from the dead man's neck. He hid it in his pocket and then cut the man down.

'What are you doing?' the woman squealed at Joss.

'This man. If we don't hide him from the public eye, all hell will be let loose and the murderer will never be caught. For now you need to tell me where I can hide this man.'. She nodded and began to think, getting all flustered with herself.

'Oh, there is an old shed next to the inn, and I have the key. Its completely empty so he should be well hidden in there.'

'Perfect.' Without the woman knowing he blew on his own whistle. 'Is there enough space for a dragon to land there?'.

'Yes, why?'. Perfectly timed, Whipper rose from the mountains with shriek and flew above Joss and the woman. Its huge wings began to rise and fall quickly as the dragon lowered itself to the ground. Joss picked up the body and strolled over to Whipper. He turned to face the woman and beckoned her. 'I am not getting on that damn thing!' she shouted.

'Well I could just leave you here with a psychotic murderer running around...' She then scurried over to the dragon and looked into its eyes with horror. 'Don't worry'. He lifted the body onto the dragon, and then he hopped on himself. The woman gingerly clambered onto the dragon and sat in front of Joss for safety. Joss tapped the dragon's back and all of a sudden it lifted itself into the air and took flight. As the beast furiously batted its wings in the air, all the woman could do is scream. The dragon circled the village several times, watching. Watching smoke billow from chimneys. Drunk men and women falling over themselves, too busy to notice a twenty-foot dragon flying above their heads! The woman eventually calmed down and pointed to a huge plot of land behind the inn, and Joss nodded his head. As he took Whipper's reigns he pulled her down, as they plummeted to the earth the woman began to panic. She began breathing in erratic patterns, as the very breath leaped from her lungs. When the dragon was about 30 feet in the air, it began to lower itself onto the huge patch of grass. Once they were down Joss stepped off the dragon and onto the muddy grass, helping the woman off as quickly as he could.

'Where is this shed?' Joss questioned.

'Over there!' she pointed to his left, and there, under a huge pine tree was an old shed. But unbelievably big! The woman scurried over to the shed and unlocked it, Joss picked up the body and carried it on his shoulders. The woman opened the shed door, and Joss dumped the body in the middle of the wooden floor. The woman turned to face the door as the corpse's remains made her feel ill. Joss placed the lantern on the floor and sat down. The woman sat down.

'What _is_ your name then?' he asked.

'Alice'. Joss' face turned pale. 'Whats wrong?'. He shook his head. 'May I ask you a question?'. Joss nodded. 'Who is the woman whose name you scream in your sleep? '. Joss knew he would be asked this. He sighed and gulped.

'Alice... Her name was Taiven. We were engaged, and we were both Dragon-keepers we met in the county of dragon's keep. It was a common summer romance. She was patrolling her area, and one day she was murdered...' he gulped and blinked quickly to prevent the tears filling his eye sockets.

'How, and by whom?' she questioned, triggering an even more sensitive area in Joss' emotions. Once knowing she had upset him, she put her head down and gulped.

'We still don't know how she died.'

'What? Surely you must of know by the corpse?'. He lowered his head slightly and then glanced back at the woman with teary eyes.

'We didn't find her corpse.'.

'So...' she was puzzled. 'How do you know she died?'. He sighed.

'We found her dragon, slaughtered. The eternal bond between a keeper and his or hers dragon is so great, that when one of them feels pain so does the other. When one dies, so does the other.'. Alice hid her head under her black cloak to hide her face, now becoming extremely pale and her eyes red with tears. She swallowed the lump in her throat enough so she could speak.

'I am so sorry...' she said. Joss sighed, with a hint of regret for telling her so much.

'Don't worry about it. There has always something that has been holding me back, something stopping me from moving on. I believe that this murder has something to do with it...'. As he stood, he took his hip flask and drunk the sour wine. Alice was confused again as to why Joss drunk alcohol but she decided to not comment as it may upset him more than he already was.

'What makes you think that this murder has something to do with...with her killing?' she asked bravely, once she had spoke she curled up in her chair, realizing she did not really want to know.

'It was the way the man had been cut, and had bled to death as well as being hung. That was how we had found Taiven's dragon.'

'So you are saying it is the same murderer. Maybe not the same person, but maybe the same group'.

Joss thought about the accusations he was making. He couldn't walk into Tribe Hall, and give these accusations out, because he had no idea who he was accusing. Tribe Hall is the place very near Dragon's Keep, it is where we Dragon-keeper's are trained. It was high in the mountains, and from where Joss was it would take roughly a full day to travel there, even flying on Whipper. He was contemplating his choices, but he always came back to the same place Tribe Hall. It was the only he place he could think of. It was worth a try he thought to himself.

'I will set off to Tribe Hall tomorrow at the break of dawn.' Alice nodded.

'If you don't mind me asking, how did you and Taiven meet?'. Joss gulped. She apologised and scurried for the door.

'Wait... Its fine, it would be nice to have someone to talk to for a change. We met 6 years ago...'


End file.
